5.24.2010

Shameless plug: dropbox is AWESOME!

I mentioned dropbox to a few students in class the other week, so I wanted to give a little more info. When it comes to tech solutions I'm pretty critical. But dropbox has definately won me over: it's easy to use, it backs up your files for safe storage, it synchronizes all your files, and best of all....IT'S FREE!.

Let me explain my personal setup: I have 4 different computers that I frequently work off of: (1) Our home Imac that we do most of our photo projects on (which we have affectionately named the "big Mac"), (2) Our macbook which I often use for web development (aka, the "mactop"), (3) a Dell desktop that I use for school work (insert cool pun-of a name here), and (4) a PC laptop that I use while in class to take notes (we shall call this my boat anchor).

Imagine what a pain it used to be to work between computers. Frequent were the phone calls to Amber where I would say, "Uh....honey. Can you send me this file. Yeah...it's located at Users:/Documents/ .... *insert about 100 subdirectories here* /myfile.doc. Yeah that should be it!" *10 minutes later* "Sorry dear...wrong computer. Now I want you to go to *insert a 109 subdirectory file here*" WHAT A PAIN!!!

Now the beauty of dropbox: it synchronized all our computers. All you have to do is download the dropbox program to your computer and start dropping files into the dropbox file. As soon as you drop or save a file within your dropbox folder, it automatically synchronizes them across ALL YOUR computers. I used to lug my laptop around to make sure I could synchronize files, now it's done as soon as I click "save."

New scenario....I was about to teach a photo class the other day, when I realized I created the powerpoint on my school computer on campus. Here we were, 2 minutes to start time, and I didn't think to email that file to myself. A moment of panic set in.....but then I remembered I had saved it in my dropbox folder. All I did was power the computer on, and as soon as it was connected online, a little notification said, "AwesomePhotoBasicsPresentation.ppt saved." Can it not get any cooler???

I know I'm already sounding like a salesman, and I don't intend to. But it is awesome! And, for every person that signs up under my name I get 250 MB extra for free (there's my shameless plug). So help me out, help yourself out and click on the link below, or click on the dropbox icon above. Thanks!